


In the Dark Night

by mynamelessname



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: AU, M/M, Supernatural AU - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-24
Updated: 2013-09-24
Packaged: 2017-12-27 12:04:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/978644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mynamelessname/pseuds/mynamelessname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hunters Sho and Jun are called by Ohno to get rid of a vengeful spirit. Unknown to them, Ohno also called on Aiba and his new friend Nino. Hijinks ensue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Dark Night

**Author's Note:**

> Written for littlealex for je_otherworlds 2013.

Sho and Jun sit at the tiny table in their equally tiny motel room. This one, at least, has interesting décor, Sho thinks as he looks around at the fish-themed wallpaper and giant fishing lures decorating the walls. Maybe not classy, but interesting. He turns back to the reports he’s supposed to be perusing just as Jun speaks up. 

“So, anything interesting?” Jun asks, looking over his black-rimmed glasses. 

Sho nods and grabs one of the reports that he had set aside and hands it over to Jun. “There’s a bus stop in Pemberton, Minnesota where young girls claim a spirit is pinching them, ahem, on the behind.” 

Jun merely stares across the table with what Sho knows as his _Is that the best you can do?_ look. 

Sho clears his throat and pulls out a second piece of paper. “Or how about the crop circles that have been popping up in western Iowa? Those have to mean something… right?” Sho asks hopefully. 

Truth being told, he knows that his suggestions are lame. Over the past month, his sources haven’t had much to offer him. Ever since those Winchester brothers cleared up their little demon problem, hunters across the country have reported a decrease in supernatural activity. Sho isn’t the best at finding reports that they should investigate, but he does excel at crunching numbers and finding trends in supernatural activity, something that often leads him and Jun to some of their most important hunts. The numbers are failing him this time, so he turns to Jun. 

“You have any suggestions?” Sho asks, but he already knows the answer. Jun has been in the business twice as long as Sho, and his network of contacts never fail them. 

“Of course I do,” Jun replies with a smirk. “Remember my friend Ohno? It seems like he has something he wants us to take a look at.” He hands over a small piece of paper that has been folded every which way and then wrinkled up a bit more for good measure. 

“A vengeful spirit, huh,” Sho comments quietly. The note doesn’t contain much more information than that, just a request to come and see him in person if they want to take on the case. Ohno has a touch of ESP, enough that he’s aware of much more than the average person - like the existence of the dark beings that also inhabit this world. At the same time, Ohno prefers to leave the hunting for professionals (if Sho and Jun could call themselves that). “Well, we’d better pack up and check out if we’re heading down to Illinois,” Sho comments as he stands up. Jun merely nods in agreement. There’s no need to discuss whether or not to go see Ohno. A vengeful spirit plus Ohno’s request to talk it over in person means that it’s serious. 

\---

An eight-hour drive and two pit stops later (both times with Jun complaining about the amount of greasy food on the menu at the truck stop diners), they arrive at Ohno’s cabin in Medora, Illinois. It’s a fair ways from anything like a main road, and even further from the interstate, but Ohno always remarks that he likes the nearby wilderness of the state park. Sho’s just glad that he doesn’t need to warn Ohno about the dangers of the woods, whether supernatural or not. 

Sho has just climbed up the steps of Ohno’s porch when they hear a car pull in behind them. Jun instinctively reaches for the pistol holstered inside his jacket but relaxes when the someone waves at them excitedly from the passenger seat. 

“Aiba,” Jun comments with a quiet chuckle. “It’ll be a regular party.”

Sho has met Aiba once, when Jun asked for Aiba’s help in dealing with a particularly nasty nest of vampires. When he first met Aiba, he had a hard time believing that the lanky and bright-eyed man was a hunter, but then he saw a glimmer of pain in his eyes. There’s almost always some dark point in their pasts that brings them into hunting but Sho doesn’t know Aiba well enough to ask. Jun only said that Aiba would tell him when he’s ready.

“Matsujun?” Aiba calls, eyes wide as he steps out of the car. Sho has to choke back a snort of amusement. He had almost forgotten Aiba’s nickname for Jun. Aiba turns back to the car and motions for the driver to get out. 

A slight man slides out of the car and gives them a two-finger salute, a stray lock of hair falling to rest in front of his eyes. “I’m Nino,” he provides as an introduction. 

“Sho. Jun,” Sho replies pointing to himself and his partner. This newcomer intrigues him, almost more than when Jun had first introduced him to Aiba. Here’s another guy who doesn’t fit the usual mold of hunter. “How did-“

“Are we going to go inside and see Ohno or stand out here chit-chatting all day?” Jun asks sharply, giving Sho a pointed look. Sho nods sheepishly and follows Jun to the door. As always, Ohno welcomes them warmly and tries to get them to look at his latest fishing photos but Jun is determined to get down to business immediately. It also means that Sho has no opportunity to introduce himself properly to this Nino guy. 

Even before Ohno begins his explanation of the situation, Sho can tell it’s serious. If only because Ohno thinks it will take four hunters to take this thing down. Ohno always speaks softly, but this time Sho can detect a slight waver in his voice. The vengeful spirit has taken root in the Denby Prairie Nature Preserve, and it has already killed four people and left one in a coma. Ohno’s ESP gives them a lead on the identity of the spirit, a park ranger killed by a stray bullet from a drunk hunter, who then dropped the body down a ravine to hide the body. The spirit now attacks anyone who dares to enter the preserve with a firearm. 

“Doesn’t seem to complicated to me,” Nino remarks, leaning back in his chair. “We go into the woods, guns blazing, and toast him before he toasts us.”

Sho can only gape at the newcomer. From the shocked silence, he isn’t the only one. He glances over to see Jun give Nino a glare that could curdle milk. “Do you have a death wish or are you really as stupid as you sound?” 

Nino narrows his eyes and glares back. “Then what’s your plan, genius?”

“I’m thinking the part about his body being in the ravine is the reason why Ohno called all of us here, am I right?” Ohno nods once in confirmation. “The spirit will be the strongest near his body, but if we want to toast him for good, we’ll need to salt and burn the body. Two of us will enter the preserve on the opposite side, ‘with guns blazing’ as you so charmingly put it, and the other two will scale the ravine walls and dispose of the body.” Jun looks at each of them in turn, saving Nino for last. “Does that meet with your approval, sir?”

Nino gazes at Jun thoughtfully before finally giving a short nod. Sho lets out a sigh of relief. He doesn’t know this Nino well, but he does know that there is something about him that gets under Jun’s skin. They really don’t need a personality clash right now. Sho, on the other hand, can’t help himself from wanting to know more about this guy. He acts like he doesn’t care, but it has to mean something that he’s here. It doesn’t help that he’s kind of good-looking, the traitorous part of Sho’s mind chimes in. Sho shakes his head to banish the distracting thoughts and pulls out the map of the preserve from the pile of papers on the table. 

“So do you know where in the ravine the body was dumped?” Sho asks Ohno, who leans over the map to get a better look. 

\---

“I don’t know why we had to wait to come out here until after dark,” Nino grumbles as they stumble through the thick underbrush. 

Sho gives a non-committal grunt. He has to admit that Nino has a point. One of the killings had happened in broad daylight but this was Jun’s plan and he’s just going along with it. 

“And I’d better not get poison sumac,” Nino mutters as he pushes aside some branches. Sho pauses a moment to make sure they don’t smack him in the face before following Nino. 

“Why are you here if you hate it so much?” Sho asks quietly. He himself has been wondering why he had to be paired with Nino. Once Jun and Sho were alone, Jun admitted that he paired Sho and Nino together because he doesn’t trust Nino to watch out for Aiba. Despite Aiba being a fully capable hunter, they all have a soft spot for Aiba but Jun is especially protective of his old friend. The last time Aiba had worked with Jun and Sho, Jun had unsuccessfully tried to convince Aiba to join them for a while. Before Sho could continue to contemplate his hard life, Nino speaks up, so quiet that Sho could barely hear him. 

“My parents divorced when I was very young, I never knew the reason until my older sister accidentally spilled the beans. It turns out our house was inhabited by… something. It drove my parents to fight constantly. My father accused my mother of making it up as a way to get his attention, like she was jealous of the time he spent at the restaurant – he was a chef, you see. I guess for a while he had my mother convinced that she was going crazy. She finally had enough of the entity… and my father, that she packed us up and moved us into her father’s home.” Nino pauses to take a deep breath before continuing. Sho wants to offer some form of sympathy but he doesn’t want to interrupt. “Even after my father learned that there truly was something in the house, he still wouldn’t admit he was wrong. These things – these monsters, they can ruin families and I have to do whatever I can to make sure that doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

Sho wants to say something, but everything that runs through his head sounds lame or cliché. He simply rests a hand on Nino’s shoulder. They stand there awkwardly for a few long moments, unsure how to proceed until Nino glances at his watch. 

“We should probably get a move on,” Nino says. “The others will be starting their fireworks show soon and we need to be in place when they do.”

They walk only a hundred yards before Sho feels a sudden chill in the air, and it’s not the kind of cool breeze that comes up after sunset. He knows what this means; the spirit is closing in on their location. Sho panics for a second. He has nothing on him but a lighter and a bag of rock salt. The rays of moonlight filtering through the trees illuminate the spirit forming in front of him. Sho freezes, his eyes wide. 

“Sho! Run!” He hears Nino yell. A split second of hesitation and Sho takes off in the direction that they came from. To hell with their plans to salt and burn the body, he’s getting out of there. He hears a couple shots, then Nino’s footsteps following him out of the woods. Sho glances back once to make sure that he isn’t leaving Nino behind. If there was one thing that has kept him alive throughout his years as a hunter, it's the fact that Sho is a fast runner. He’s about to turn forward again when he sees the glint of metal in Nino’s hand. A gun. The one thing they weren’t supposed to bring with them into the woods. He debates the merit of stopping right there to ream out Nino when he suddenly emerges from the woods, not too far from where they had parked Aiba’s car. 

Nino bursts from the woods a few seconds later, immediately bending over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath. 

“You!” Sho yells, pointing at Nino. He’s about to get into full rant mode then realizes that he should probably call Jun and tell him that tonight’s plan has fallen through. “Follow me. I’m not done with you yet.” Sho turns to walk back to the car and pulls out his cellphone, quickly dialing Jun. He must know that something is up because he picks up immediately. 

“Yeah, tonight is a no go,” Sho says bluntly. “You head back to the motel with Aiba. I’ll be there later. I need to have a talk with Nino first.” 

There’s a moment of silence before Jun simply replies, “Okay.” He probably knows that he’ll get the full story from Sho later anyway. 

Sho shoves his phone back into his pocket and turns back to Nino, who’s looking at the ground, the trees, anywhere but Sho. “A gun. What the hell were you thinking?” 

“It only had rock salt in it,” Nino replies weakly, finally looking up. 

“The ghost doesn’t care if you’re shooting rock salt, real bullets or fucking fairy dust. He takes down anyone who brings a gun into his woods, or weren’t you listening earlier?” Sho grabs Nino’s shirt and pulls him up so he can look straight into his eyes. “You almost got yourself killed. You almost got _both_ of us killed! Jun was right. You really are an idiot.”

“Going into the woods haunted by a vengeful spirit with only a lighter and a bag of rock salt, that’s what’s idiotic!” Nino shoots back, his eyes blazing. Sho gasps quietly as Nino pushes him against the passenger door of the car. “I brought it with precisely because I _don’t_ want to die.” 

Sho lays a calming hand on Nino’s shoulders. “I don’t want to die either, but sometimes this job requires us to take that risk. And we have to trust those we work with.”

“I trust you,” Nino replies quietly, his eyes dark and sad. “I just don’t trust myself.”

Driven by some unknown impulse, Sho brings his other hand up to cup Nino’s cheek. “I trust you,” he replies quietly. He doesn’t know why he should trust him, but he does. “I know I just met you today, but-“ 

Anything further was cut off as Nino leans close and mutters, “Shut up,” before crashing their lips together in a desperate kiss. Sho’s eyes go wide in surprise then drift closed as he wraps an arm around Nino’s neck, pulling him close. 

Their tongues swirl together and Sho loses all coherent thought. He can’t think about the consequences of what they’re doing, nor does he want to. He pours all of his frustration into that kiss, his fear and maybe a little bit of loneliness. 

Nino’s hand slides under Sho’s sweat-soaked shirt and Sho’s skin tingles at the contact. Sho breaks the kiss with a gasp and looks into Nino’s eyes. His earlier fear and anger has been replaced with dark desire. Sho can’t think of anything more attractive right then. “I accept your apology,” Sho says with a breathy chuckle. Not waiting for a response, he attaches himself to Nino’s jawline, trailing kisses up and down, nibbling at his earlobe. At this moment, he realizes that he’s wanted to do this since the first moment Nino had come ambling out of Aiba’s car. 

Nino throws his head back and sighs. Sho grins against Nino’s neck but he isn’t quite done. Sho latches onto the junction of Nino's neck and shoulder and sucks hard, wanting to leave his mark. Nino arches into him, moaning quietly. Sho tempers the action with feather light kisses, laving the tip of his tongue over the forthcoming bruise. 

Nino’s hand is suddenly in Sho’s hair, pulling him back into a fiery kiss as Nino’s other hand drifts lower and lower down Sho’s back, dipping beneath the waistband of Sho’s faded jeans and pulling them closer together. Sho can feel the hardness of Nino’s erection against his thigh. Sho grins into the kiss. Nino wants this as much as Sho does. 

But right now, Sho needs more and their clothes were in the way. He breaks the kiss and tugs on Nino’s t-shirt, pulling the offending article over his head. He drags his hands across Nino’s chest and stomach. The gasp Nino makes as Sho brushes against a nipple goes straight to Sho’s groin. 

“I-I want you. Fuck me. N-now.” Nino stutters between gasps. Pure desire floods through Sho’s veins but as much as he wants it, he isn’t going to take Nino on the ground. He’s tried that once and has only two words to say: fire ants. 

As if he can sense Sho’s hesitation, Nino pulls open the backdoor and pushes Sho towards it. “The back seat, idiot.”

Sho gives an embarrassed laugh and kicks off his shoes, pulling Nino inside with him. No small amount of undignified wiggling later and Nino is naked underneath Sho. And matters are complicated further when they can’t keep their lips and hands off each other each time a new spot of skin is revealed. 

Sho hovers over Nino and repositions his legs, bracing himself on one hand and pushing a knee between Nino’s legs. Nino’s fingers trail up and down his spine, sending fireworks throughout his body. 

Sho traces the line of one hip with his fingers and leans down to swirl his tongue around Nino’s belly button. Sho’s fingers drift downwards before slowly closing around Nino’s cock. Nino moans loudly and Sho grins into Nino’s stomach. 

Nino shifts, pulling his hands from Sho’s back and reaching under the driver’s seat. Grinning, he pulls out a small bottle of lube and a condom. “Aiba believes in being prepared for anything,” Nino comments with a chuckle before tearing the packet open with his teeth. He swiftly rolls the condom over Sho’s cock, and Sho almost loses it right there. He rolls his hips into Nino’s hand, desperate for any contact, but Nino pulls his hand away and smirks.

Mourning the lost contact, Sho watches as Nino pours a generous amount of lube onto his fingers and reaches down to prepare himself. His eyebrows wrinkle at the intrusion. Nino lets out a small puff of air and Sho reclaims his lips in a heated kiss. A few long moments later and Nino breaks the kiss. “P-please,” he pants into Sho’s mouth. 

Sho nods and claims the bottle of lube, coating his erection. He shifts and nudges Nino’s leg aside. He can feel Nino tense as he enters slowly. Sho wraps his free hand around Nino’s cock, slowly twisting and pulling, anything to distract Nino from the initial pain at the intrusion. He pushes himself inside slowly and then pauses to watch Nino’s face, waiting for a sign that Nino was ready. “F-fuck me,” Nino commands. 

“My pleasure,” Sho responds, thrusting into Nino. He leans forward to reclaim Nino’s lips, moaning into the kiss. Sho’s back strains at the angle and he straightens, cursing as he hits his head on the dome light. He glares at the offending fixture then turns back to Nino, who can’t hide his amusement. Sho grins wickedly and thrusts harder and faster, his hand on Nino’s cock matching the rhythm and adding an extra delicious twist here and there. Nino’s head falls back, his dark hair splayed against the white upholstery as he arches into Sho. 

Sho knows he can’t last much longer, then Nino wraps a leg around Sho’s waist, pulling him closer, and Sho loses it. His vision blurs for a second, fire beginning in his belly and ricocheting through his body. “Fuck,” he whimpers. He’s close but he doesn’t want it to be over yet. Nino trembles beneath him and Sho knows he’s close too. Sho thrusts harder, faster and Nino arches into him, coming with a shudder and a loud cry. Trembling, Sho comes two beats behind Nino, moaning his name and trembling as he collapses into Nino’s chest. 

\---

“You look like you did more than talk with Nino,” are the first words out of Jun’s mouth as Sho walks through the doors of their motel room. 

Sho pauses before running a hand through his sweat-soaked, disheveled hair. “Oh, this is from running through the woods.” He can feel himself flushing slightly, despite his excuse. The flush doesn’t escape Jun’s notice. 

Jun narrows his eyes. “And it also turned your shirt backwards?”

Sho looks down in horror. Jun’s right. In their haste to get back to the motel, Sho had indeed put his shirt on backwards. “Something like that,” he replies with a nervous chuckle. 

Luckily Jun decides not to embarrass Sho any further and dives back into business. “Nino brought a gun with him, right?” Sho merely nods. “I thought I heard a couple shots. And I knew they weren’t from myself or Aiba. Well, we came up with a new plan as we drove back.” Sho sighs quietly in relief, grateful that Jun didn’t give him a hard time about what did or did not transpire between himself and Nino. “Come look at the map again,” Jun says, motioning for Sho to join him at the tiny table. “We found something interesting while we were on our own trek through the woods.” Sho settles into his seat at the table, hoping that this plan is better than the last. 

With only a small feeling of deju vu, Sho tromps through the dark woods with Nino at his side (and without Nino’s pistol). The task is much the same as the night before, but Jun had discovered an entrance to the ravine that would make Nino and Sho’s journey shorter by half. Hopefully, this will get them within striking distance of the corpse. It also doesn’t require Sho to scale the walls of the ravine, something his fear heights is eternally grateful for. 

They walk in silence, not because they feel awkward about talking over what happened the night before, but because they don’t need to explain themselves. Or at least, that’s how Sho feels. 

“We’re almost there,” Nino comments quietly. 

Sho nods and pulls out his phone to give Jun the signal that they should start their fireworks show. Not actual fireworks, Sho thinks sadly, but the combined firepower of the guns that Jun and Aiba had packed should provide quite the show. 

Nino consults his map one last time, peering through the branches of the dark forest and into the opening of the ravine. “The body should be a hundred yards this way.”

Sho nods once. “Lead the way.” 

Sho can smell the body before they see it. This is the worst part about recent cases, especially in the middle of summer. He hands Nino the bag of rock salt and watches as Nino carefully sprinkles it across the body, seemingly unaffected by the stench. Pinching his nose with one hand and his lighter in the other, Sho torches the body. 

Sho and Nino step back to watch the body burn. A macabre sort of bonfire, he thinks to himself. A few minutes later, Sho’s phone buzzes in his pocket. Jun. 

“The spirit was closing in on us when it suddenly disappeared. I assume you torched it?” he asks, relief clearly evident in his voice. 

“Yeah,” Sho replies. “As soon as the fire goes out, we’ll meet you back at Ohno’s.”

\---

Sho wakes up to an urgent knock at his door. He glances at the clock. 7:30 am. Far too early considering the late hour they got in the night before – and the number of beers they had consumed with Ohno. He glances over at Jun’s bed to see if the other would get the door to find that Jun’s bed is empty and neatly made. Sho groans and rolls out of bed. He pads over to the door, unlocks the deadbolt and pulls it open just as Nino raises his hand to knock again. 

“We’ve been ditched,” Nino announces shortly, holding up a piece of paper and a set of car keys. Aiba’s keys. 

“I decided to take Matsujun up on his offer to hunt together,” Sho reads aloud. “I left my car for you. Have fun with Sho~.” He looks back up at Nino, confused. Sho has to admit that he had been disappointed at the thought of them parting ways and not having the opportunity to explore whatever it was they share. It seems that Aiba and Jun had read into that as well.

“I guess it’s just the two of us now,” Nino comments with a wry grin. 

Jun was usually the one who determined their next hunt, but from now on, Sho will have to do that for himself. But he isn’t going to worry about that just yet, he thinks as he pulls Nino in the door and shuts it behind them, locking it for good measure.


End file.
